By-products resulting from combustion include tar, ash, CO2, carbon monoxide and other gases & carcinogenic elements, many of which are known to increase the likelihood of several cancers. In addition, because smoking is basically breathing in fire, your lungs and throat are subjected to high amounts of heat, which is damaging no matter what the substance is.

Combustion is also known to decrease and destroy a large percentage of the active ingredients contained in the plant material. Studies have shown that 25-50% of the active ingredients contained in the tobacco are destroyed by the act of combustion itself. So not only does smoking create many unhealthy and unwanted side effects, but a large percentage of the plant material's active ingredients are lost in the process.

In contrast, vaporizing warms the plant material to a temperature at which combustion cannot occur. The resulting effect occurs with the release of the active ingredient's in the form of a warm vapor. Since vaporizing does not use a flame or fire to ignite the plant material, none of the active ingredients are lost in the process. With every inhalation you're getting no smoke and more of the natural substance itself. Vapor contains little to no tar and is much cooler to inhale through ones' lungs, and pure vapor does not have any carcinogenic elements. Vapor is a healthier substitute to smoke!

The vapor itself, is slightly visible when exhaled and does not create a smell like smoking does. In fact, there is no odor at all contained in vapor! Also, because vapor contains no smoke, the natural tastes found in the tobacco are more noticeably present.

Vaporizing allows you to enjoy the same, if not greater stimulation than smoking creates, but without the unwanted side effects!

Each advancement opens the door to new avenues of discovery, new possibilities for a higher quality of life. Undeniably, human beings in the 21st century enjoy more recreational and healthy living choices than ever before.

Despite this ground swell of advancement, however, certain critical areas remain virtually untouched. Our methods of recreational drug delivery, most especially smoking, are one such example. Burning tobacco is an incredibly hazardous way to obtain the benefits of nicotine. Yet, until very recently no progress has been made in an alternate delivery system.

Despite the past decade's considerable growth in the development of bio-engineered medications, our methods of delivering these or any substances to the body outside of a medically supervised environment remain limited and imprecise. For more on this, see the Addendum, but for now keep in mind that the hypodermic syringe predates the American Civil War and the first record of smoking is traced to the Mayans in 600 AD.

Whether homeopathic remedies or synthesized medications, our current drug delivery techniques are basic, archaic, and verging on obsolete. Your doctor may deliver remedies via pills, syringes, skin patches, or particle inhalers. You may ingest herbal substances by swallowing raw or extracted plant material or by drinking tea brewed from suitable leaves.

We can absorb certain effects through the skin by way of a poultice or salve, or we can inhale the desired essence through the smoke of the burning plant. Yet each of these methods has limitations and in some cases, outright dangers. It's been nearly four decades since technology has advanced enough to let us clearly see the hazards of taking a substance through the inhalation of its smoke; however, our advanced technologies have yet to be applied to an alternative method of Viably delivering these substances directly from the plants themselves.

This is the 21st century! We can manufacture a human heart, yet we're chained to the carcinogenic byproducts of combustion in order to receive the desired herbal benefits. Not any more. Inhalation (Phyto means "plant"). Vaporization is a substance delivery method purer than smoking, quicker and more direct than swallowing pills, and painless compared to needles. It is the new revolution in substance delivery and is poised to strengthen and enrich the medical, homeopathic, and smoking industries.

This is an important distinction because when a substance is burned it becomes denatured. Denaturing means that a chemical change takes place and the molecular structure of the substance is actually modified. When denaturing is catalyzed by excessive heat this is known as pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is a major drawback to smoking a material.

When pyrolysis occurs, a molecular breakdown creates new elements that had not been present in the source material prior to combustion. The obvious example is, of course, tobacco. When smoking a cigarette, you seek the effects of tobacco's active element, nicotine. Through the process of smoking, however, you receive not only nicotine, but a handful of toxins and irritants, such as smoke and tar, which have been created by pyrolysis.

In contrast, because vaporization typically requires a temperature lower than a substance's combustion point, pyrolysis never takes place and the substance is never denatured. In other words, vaporization releases the active elements of a substance through a method by which pyrolysis cannot take place. Therefore, it produces a pure aerosol mist comprised only of elements naturally occurring in the source material.

Scientists discovered the temperature at which the active elements in a plant will evaporate and aerosolize can be lower than the temperature at which that plant will combust. If correctly applied, a lower temperature will cause the release of an herb's essential elements into an inhalable steam and provided the heat source remains at the lower temperature, the substance will never be burned. No smoke. No smoky odor. Just pure vapor from the botanical mixture of your choice.
From Plant to Vapor
Let's take a moment to discuss what's actually happening with vaporization. We all understand the concept of liquid to solid or liquid to gas, boiling water and freezing ice are examples we see every day. But solid to gas is a bit more difficult to picture. All plants are imbued with oils that hold many of the desired elements for a medicine or homeopathic remedy.

For example, in the case of aromatherapy, a chamomile leaf contains a center layer of essential oils. In fact, these oils contain the aroma and therapeutic benefits of the herb. The oils in each plant type will boil at a temperature specific to that plant. Boiling points depend mainly on the density of the oil. When the liquid within the leaves reaches a certain temperature the oil begins to boil, the molecules will move more quickly, and spread farther apart.

It is this action which thins the density of the oil from a heavier than air liquid, to a lighter than air gas. The substance can then be pulled by air and inhaled into the lung. In mist form, the particles of the oil are small enough to be absorbed into the alveoli (tiny air sacs that cover the surface of the lower lung) where they are almost immediately taken into the blood stream. As the vaporization continues, the essential oils are lifted from the plant and it becomes curled, and withered. It may darken in color and will often leave behind only a clean, dry, and crumbled substance.

The vast majority of herbs today are enjoyed by ingestion. Supplements may be taken in pill form, brewed into teas, or by simply eating the plant itself. The active ingredients of the plant, however, must pass through a series of obstacles that may degrade the plant's active elements before finally entering the blood stream and benefiting the user.

However, as digestive enzymes break down herbal remedies, they degrade their effect and sometimes even catalyze a change in the material. In addition, a time delay of noticeable effect often makes proper dosing a problem.

Ingestion is a relatively safe, but significantly inefficient way to benefit from herbs and medicines.

Inhalation is another choice and the most common form of this is smoking. Tobacco has been used for thousands of years. Millions of people have enjoyed the plant as an herbal aid, a religious and ritualistic device, and for recreational enjoyment.

Over the past 30 years we have finally developed the technology and medical advances to recognize the health dangers inherent in the combustion of this or any herb. Yet few herbal delivery options have been developed to replace combustion.

Over the next few years, vaporization promises to be a prominent alternative to current methods of drug delivery and aromatherapy.